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Battleground (2014)
Battleground (2014) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event and WWE Network event produced by WWE. It took place on July 20, 2014 at the Tampa Bay Times Forum, in Tampa, Florida. It was the second event under the Battleground chronology. It was also the last WWE pay-per-view event to use the WWE scratch logo. Nine matches took place at the event, with two being shown on the pre-show. The main event saw John Cena defeat Randy Orton, Kane, and Roman Reigns in a Fatal four-way match to retain the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. The event received 99,000 buys (excluding WWE Network views), slightly down on the previous year's 114,000 buys. Storylines The card consisted of nine matches, including two on the pre-show, that resulted from scripted storylines, where wrestlers portrayed villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches, with results predetermined by WWE's writers. Storylines between the characters played out on WWE's primary television programs, Raw and SmackDown. At Money in the Bank, John Cena won a ladder match (other participants were: Kane, Randy Orton, Roman Reigns, Alberto Del Rio, Sheamus, Bray Wyatt and Cesaro) for the vacant WWE World Heavyweight Championship to become a 15-time WWE World Heavyweight Champion. The next night on Raw, Triple H scheduled Cena to defend the title at Battleground in a Fatal 4-Way match against Roman Reigns, Kane and Randy Orton. On the June 30 episode of Raw, AJ Lee returned to WWE, defeated Paige for the Divas Championship. On the July 11 episode of Smackdown, AJ was scheduled to defend the title against Paige at the event. On June 30 edition of Raw, it was revealed that Bad News Barrett suffered an injury on the June 27 edition of SmackDown when he was thrown into the barricade by Jack Swagger. Due to this, he was stripped of the Intercontinental Championship. Cole also announced that there would be a Battleground Battle Royal at Battleground for the vacant WWE Intercontinental Championship. On the same edition, Cesaro, The Great Khali, Kofi Kingston, and Damien Sandow were added to the battle royal. On the July 1 edition of Main Event, Dolph Ziggler, Rob Van Dam, Ryback, Curtis Axel and Big E were added to the match. On the July 4 edition of SmackDown, Alberto Del Rio and Bo Dallas were added to the match. On the July 7 edition of Raw, Fandango and Sheamus were added to the match. On the July 14 edition of Raw, Sin Cara, The Miz, Titus O'Neil, Xavier Woods, Zack Ryder, Heath Slater, R-Truth, Adam Rose and Diego were added to the match. At Battleground, Bad News Barrett was to award the Intercontinental Championship to the winner of the battle royal. On July 16, Sandow and Rose were pulled from the battle royal. On July 20, Sandow was reinstated into the battle royal and Fandango was pulled from the battle royal. Van Dam did not appear in the battle royal due to an injury. On the June 30 edition of Raw, Chris Jericho returned to the WWE, but was attacked by The Wyatt Family, thus setting up a match between the two at the event. On July 8, Jericho was scheduled to face Bray Wyatt at Battleground. Following Money in the Bank, WWE Tag Team Champions The Usos continued their feud with Wyatt Family members Luke Harper and Erick Rowan. On the June 30 edition of Raw, The Wyatt Family defeated The Usos and Sheamus. On the July 7 edition of Raw, Harper and Rowan defeated The Usos. On the July 11 edition of SmackDown, The Usos were scheduled to defend the title against The Wyatt Family in a 2-out-of-3 falls match at the event. On the June 2 edition of Raw, Seth Rollins turned on The Shield by attacking both Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns, siding with The Authority in the process. In the ensuing weeks, Rollins and Ambrose attacked each other, and each interfered in the others matches. The feud intensified when Kane assisted Rollins in winning the Money in the Bank ladder matchat the Money in the Bank pay-per-view on June 29. On July 12, Rollins and Ambrose were scheduled to face each other at Battleground. On the June 30 edition of Raw, Jack Swagger and Zeb Colter confronted Rusev and Lana about their anti-American views. Swagger and Colter issued a challenge to Rusev, which was accepted on the July 14 edition of Raw. Also confirmed for the event was Cameron squaring off against Naomi, which took place on the pre-show. After they lost to AJ Lee and Paige on the July 7 edition of Raw, Cameron and Naomi attacked each other, effectively breaking up The Funkadactyls and setting up a match for the event. On July 20, a match between Adam Rose and Fandango was scheduled for the pre-show. Aftermath The Swagger-Rusev match, promoted as "United States vs. Russia", was marked in controversy after Lana made comments prior to the match blaming the United States for "recent current" world events and praising Russian president Vladimir Putin to help build heat for Rusev. Some in the media viewed the promo as a veiled reference to the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 three days earlier. In response to the backlash, a representative of WWE said that the segment "was in no way referring to the Malaysia Airlines tragedy", adding that the Rusev-Lana storyline "has been a part of WWE programming for more than three months. WWE apologizes to anyone who misunderstood last night's segment and was offended." In response to WWE's statement, Pro Wrestling Torch newsletter assistant editor James Caldwell viewed the comments as hollow, noting that reasonable viewers could conclude that Lana was referring to the plane crash. "WWE tacking on a fake apology with an insult to people's intelligence makes WWE sound even worse. All-around, it's a messy statement that conveys a lack of understanding, sensitivity, and maturity from WWE to be a decent corporate citizen", wrote Caldwell. Swagger did not appear on Raw the next night, but he had a rematch with Rusev on Main Event, which Swagger won by disqualification. On the July 21 edition of Raw, Triple H named Brock Lesnar the number one contender for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship held by John Cena, and scheduled a title match for SummerSlam. Results Other on-screen personnel See also * List of WWE pay-per-view events * Battleground Category:Battleground Category:World Wrestling Entertainment pay-per-view events Category:2014 Pay-Per-View Events